The Chinese Moon Festival, or sometimes called the Mid－Autumn Festival, takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The festival dates back to the Tang dynasty 618 AD and celebrates the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon.

As with many Chinese celebrations, there are ancient legends to explain the holiday. In ancient times, the Chinese planted and harvested by the lunar calendar, using the moon as an important time reference and guide.

The Moon Festival is a big holiday with family reunions and moon gazing activities.

In mid－autumn, farmers have just finished gathering their crops and bringing in fruits from the orchards. They are overwhelmed with joy when they have a harvest and at the same time, they feel quite relaxed after a year of hard work. So the 15th Day of the eighth lunar month has gradually evolved as a widely celebrated festival for ordinary people. Night falls. The land is bathed in silver moonlight. Families set up tables in their courtyards or sit together on their balconies, chatting and sharing offerings to the moon. Together, they enjoy the spell of night. Naturally, they are reminded of beautiful legends about the moon. The most popular one tells how a goddess named Chang'e ascended to the moon.

One of the legends about the Moon Festival is about a builder or architect named Hou Yi and his divinely beautiful wife, Changer. Hou Yi built a beautiful jade palace for the Goddess of the Western Heaven or sometimes called the Royal Mother. The Goddess was so happy that she gave Hou Yi a special pill that contained the magic elixir of immortality. But with it came the condition and warning that he may not use the pill until he had accomplished certain things. However, one day Changer found the pill and without telling her husband, she swallowed it. The Goddess of the Western Heaven was very angry and as a punishment, Changer was banished to the moon where, according to the legend, she can be seen at her most beautiful on the night of the bright harvest moon.

A special cake is eaten during the mid－autumn festival, called the moon cake. The making of moon cakes dates from the Tang dynasty （618 －907）. During the Ming dynasty it was the custom to exchange moon cakes as greetings at family reunions and it was during the Qing dynasty that the moon cakes found today （a cake usually stuffed with walnut paste） was established. The ingredients used in moon cakes do however differ from area to area in China. Those of Suzhou are similar to shortbread and have several layers containing bean paste, ginkgo spiced salt or meat, usually pork. Beijing moon cakes are stuffed with vegetables, while Chaozhou ones are oily and very sweet. Cantonese moon cakes are oil－rich and have lots of stuffing inside little dough. They can be stuffed with coconut paste, lotus seed paste, various fruits, seeds and nuts, egg yolk, chicken, ham or date paste.

This festival is to celebrate the harvest and to enjoy the beautiful moon light

It's said that on the fifteenth of August, the moon is the most round and beauiful .It's so full and bright that we can appreciate the magnificence of this world.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties. In the Zhou Dynasty, people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty, however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. When it becomes dark, they look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration becomes unprecedented popular. Together with the celebration there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers, fire dragon dances and so forth. However, the custom of playing under the moon is not popular as it used to be nowadays, but it is not less popular to enjoy the bright silver moon. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them.

I am so glad to show you Chinese Moon Festival. The Chinese Moon Festival is also called the Mid-Autumn Festival which takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It is one of the traditional Chinese Festivals and it is as popular as Spring Festival in China.

We all know in mid－autumn, farmers have just finished gathering their crops and bringing in fruits from the orchards. They are overwhelmed with joy when they have a harvest and at the same time, they feel quite relaxed after a year of hard work. So the 15th Day of the eighth lunar month has gradually evolved as a widely celebrated festival for ordinary people. Night falls. The land is bathed in silver moonlight. Families set up tables in their courtyards or sit together on their balconies, chatting and sharing offerings to the moon. Together, they enjoy the spell of night. Naturally, they are reminded of beautiful legends about the moon. The most popular one tells how a goddess named Chang e ascended to the moon.

Of course, the Chinese usually have a special family dinner. Each member of the family, even from far away, will go back home to have the dinner. During the dinner, we eat a lot of delicious food, watch TV and chat about everything happily. We also eat moon cakes---an important kind of food of the Moon Festival. When the Chinese Moon Festival is coming, the shop-window are decorated beautifully with pictures of ancient Chinese ladies. Many moon cakes are displayed for people to buy. People send presents like wine, fruits, moon cakes and so forth to their friends and relatives. Moon cakes are always round like the moon. There is bean paste, egg-yolk, ice cream or some other nice fruits or food in them. For moon cake, it has an interesting history. Long long ago in one of the dynasties of China there was a king who was a very cruel to the people and did not manage the country well. They were so angry that some brave people suggested killing the king. So they wrote notes telling about the meeting place and time and put them into cakes. When they

ate them they discovered the notes. So they gathered together to make a sudden attack on the king. From then on the Chinese people celebrate on August 15 and eat moon cake in memory of that important event.

Time goes by. The moon gets more lighter and arounder. All the family members go out and enjoy the moon and the moonlight. We talk about the stories about the moon and laugh a lot. For children, they light their pretty lanterns and run and laugh on the play grand. We can’t go to bed until the midnight.

Chinese Moon Festival is also a traditional festival for Chinese. It is so important for us. Do you like this festival? If yes, please come and celebrate it with us. To be honest, you can eat delicious moon cake.